A free online event delivered by the Montage partnership and UK National Commission for UNESCO on cultural mountain heritage and climate resilience.
Join us, the Montage partnership and UK National Commission for UNESCO, online on Friday the 5th of June from 10:30am-12:30pm CEST to find out more about the Montage project, a new partnership connecting mountain regions and UNESCO Biospheres in Nepal, Norway, and Scotland.
We will discuss the following questions:
- What is ‘cultural heritage in the making’?
- What constitutes cultural heritage in mountain areas?
- Why does it matter for mountain futures and climate resilience?
- What is the role of UNESCO Biospheres in supporting heritage-based community adaptation?
- What is the role of UNESCO designations in making connections between cultural heritage and climate change?
Background
Mountain regions are widely recognised as places of rich and diverse cultural heritage. This heritage extends beyond tangible landscape features to include knowledge systems, languages, practices, and ways of life that are deeply embedded in everyday experience. For many mountain communities, cultural heritage is inseparable from the environments in which they live, shaping identities, livelihoods, and relationships with land. At the same time, mountain regions are undergoing profound and interconnected transformations. Climate change is altering ecological systems while social and economic changes are reshaping how communities live and work. These processes do not simply threaten cultural heritage as something fixed or inherited from the past; rather, they are actively reshaping it.
UNESCO Biosphere Reserves act as living landscapes where the relationships between communities and their natural and cultural heritage can be explored as the basis for sustainable actions and governance. The ‘Montage’ project brings together researchers and practitioners working towards Nepal’s first UNESCO Biosphere nomination in collaboration with teams working in UNESCO Biospheres in Scotland and Norway.
We would like to invite researchers, practitioners and others with an interest in mountain areas and their cultural and natural heritage, and members of the UNESCO community to join us to hear from the project team and the UK National Commission for UNESCO to discuss these themes.
Line Up
Rosalind Bryce
Ros is the Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies at UHI. She has worked in partnership with UNESCO Biospheres internationally to understand the importance of cultural heritage in supporting sustainable land and communities.
Professor Inger Maaren
Inger holds a UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Heritage and Environmental Management and works closely with the UNESCO MAB programme and has good experience of conducting research in Nepal.
Ram Prasad Chaudhary
Ram is an Emeritus Professor at Tribhuvan University, Nepal and is working with Montage partner, Samriddha Pahad, to provide research expertise on the natural and cultural heritage of the Himalaya
Natasha Hutchison
Natasha is the Manager of Wester Ross Biosphere in Scotland. She has worked extensively with cultural heritage projects and is a Montage partner
Kari Natland
Kari Natland is the Manager of Nordhordland Biosphere in Norway. She has long standing collaborations with University of Bergen and UHI and is a Montage partner.
Catriona Mallows
Catriona Mallows is a Researcher at the Centre for Mountain Studies at UHI with interests in ethical community research and youth engagement.
Barsha Lekhi
Barsha Lekhi is a Project Officer and Indigenous Engagement Specialist at UNESCO Kathmandu – Barsha is involved in the development of the Kanchenjunga Biosphere Reserve nomination.
Photo by Sushanta Rokka.